poverty, joy, and everything in between.

So, I feel like I've been pretty quiet on this front lately, and it's certainly not because I don't have anything to say. In fact, I have so much to say that I don't really know where to begin.

However, because it's already late, I'll just leave you with a recent story from Casserly:

Earlier this week, S. Nancy was gifted 15 tickets to see a performance of the Nutcracker in Boston. She has been busy doling them out to the local girls in the neighborhood to go with their mother's.  A couple of days ago, she asked one of the girls, M., if she would be interested in going. This girl loves to dance, and we naturally expected her to be enthusiastic about the idea of going to the ballet.

However, M. strongly said, "NO,"  when asked, and when S. Nancy questioned her about why, this was her response. It broke my heart a little bit, and you'll see why:

"No. Because it's something I'll never to get to do, and I can't want things I can't have, because it's just too hard. It hurts too much."

This girl is in the fifth grade. She is barely into double digits, and she already practices self-denial as a form of self-protection because she doesn't know any other way to cope, to survive in this world.

I wish you could have seen the look on her face when S. Nancy told her she was going to get to go to the ballet for the first time--that she could have something she never dreamed possible.

These are the moments I hope to carry with me long after this year is over: both the deeply personal, powerful knowledge of what it is like to be poor and to deny yourself even the desire for something you think you will never be able to hold... as well as the look of joy on the face of a child whose world just got turned upside down in the best possible way.